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Opinion After caste survey, Telangana will face hurdles in tweaking quotas

Revanth Reddy-led government would have to implement the Congress promise of 42 per cent reservation for OBCs in the upcoming local body elections.

Telangana Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy receives the report of the Judicial Commission headed by Retd HC Justice Shameem Akhtar, with recommendations on SC categorisation after completion of the comprehensive caste survey. (Photo: PTI)

Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd

February 13, 2025 08:11 AM IST First published on: Feb 5, 2025 at 04:42 PM IST

The Telangana cabinet sub-committee released the data of the recently-concluded caste survey on February 3. The cabinet approved the survey and placed it before the state assembly on February 4. The broad percentiles of the survey show that non-Muslim Other Backward Classes (OBCs) constitute 46.25 per cent and Muslim OBCs constitute 10.08 per cent of the state’s population, while Scheduled Castes constitute 17.43 per cent and Scheduled Tribes 10.45 per cent. Non-Muslim general castes (Other Castes) are at 13.31 per cent. Non-Muslim OBCs also include Christians, Sikhs and Buddhists, not just Hindus, although their numbers are small. What is surprising in this data is the number of Muslim OBCs. Nobody expected that out of a total 12.56 per cent Muslims, only 2.48 per cent would not claim the OBC status. The general castes, including Muslim general castes, constitute 15.79 per cent.

It is also possible that the poverty levels of the Muslim OBCs match their caste position. As of now, Telangana Muslims have just 4 per cent reservation. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been opposing giving any reservation to Muslims.

The increase of the tribal population, broadly from about 7 per cent in united Andhra Pradesh to 10.45 per cent in Telangana is because of the concentration of Lambada population that lives in the plains, along with forest tribes, such as the Gonds and Koyas.

Implications of the survey

This state-level caste and socioeconomic survey has serious implications for national and local welfare politics. For the first time, a Congress state government has undertaken such a survey in the country. Rahul Gandhi had launched a national campaign on the issue, saying that 90 per cent OBC/SC/STs are out of the power structures in India. During the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra from Manipur to Mumbai, Rahul Gandhi promised that if Congress comes to power in 2024 elections, it will get a comprehensive caste census done at national level.

An important reason that Rahul Gandhi pushed the caste census was to put the BJP government in Delhi in an ideological fix. Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, the BJP has won a substantial number of votes from the OBCs. It was this bloc in north India that helped the BJP retain power for a third term, albeit with the support of alliance partners. Rahul Gandhi wants to break this fortress of the BJP by pushing a much more radical pro-OBC agenda. The caste census is a key anchor in that fight.

Opposition from upper castes

The Revanth Reddy government’s efforts to conduct a caste survey within 14 months of coming to power are praiseworthy given the complications involved in the survey — not just at the level of states, but also at the national level. Normally collection of census data is done by the Union government. But so far, no national government has touched the issue of caste data in the national census, which is normally conducted once every 10 years. After the 2011 Census, the UPA government did a half-hearted socioeconomic survey, part of which was the collection of caste data. But this was never released. Once the BJP came to power in 2014 that data was dumped. The Modi government has shown total indifference to the caste census issue because of the RSS/BJP’s long-time dependence on general castes.

The non-OBC general castes have usually opposed such an exercise, as the numbers would certainly bring in new political equations everywhere. In the post-Mandal decades, OBCs have slowly but surely become vote banks in themselves, creating a crisis in the old dependence of Congress on the Muslim and Dalit vote banks. It was the OBC vote bank that enabled the BJP to come to power.

The OBC demand

However, OBCs have been demanding a caste census for a while, because once the caste data comes out, the Supreme Court’s cap of 27 per cent on OBC reservation can be challenged. This position, taken by OBC leaders across the country, strengthened after the Modi government gave 10 per cent reservation to the economically weaker sections (EWS) of the general castes. The government brought an act and implemented it to begin with the All India Services. This was challenged in the Supreme Court, which then upheld the reservation.

The Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar was the first state government to do its own caste survey. The survey showed that OBCs formed 63.14 per cent of the state’s population. Based on this data, the Bihar government tried to increase the OBC reservation of the state, but the Patna High Court struck it down as “unconstitutional”.

When it comes to the percentage of non-Muslim OBCs, the Telangana survey data is along expected lines. The immediate impact of these numbers, though collected by a state government through its state planning board, is that the government has to implement the party promise of 42 per cent reservation for OBCs in the local body elections, due this year.

The fresh SC/ST data will also force the government to take a stand on the sub-caste classification of their reservation immediately. And like the Bihar government, it will try to push the OBC quota in the state reservation beyond the existing 27 per cent.

In both cases — OBC reservation and SC/ST sub-classification — legal hurdles are likely to emerge.

The writer is Former Director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad